


Another Place

by RaspberryDawn



Category: Smosh
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bad Flirting, Co-workers, Dating, Developing Relationship, Established Relationship, Getting Together, Getting to Know Each Other, M/M, Multi, One Shot, Polyamory, Shopping Malls, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 12:48:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13124052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaspberryDawn/pseuds/RaspberryDawn
Summary: Shayne and Damien, long-term boyfriends and now coworkers together at a geeky pop culture store in a mall, seem sort of out of place there. However, when Noah comes over from the expensive menswear store nearby to ask about using their microwave, the lanky young adult seems even more out of place in a suit holding a plastic container of plain noodles.The couple are rather fond of those who don't immediately fit in, though, and through some rather forward flirting manage to rope Noah in.// shopping mall AU, poly, one-shot, with cameos from some other Smosh fam.





	Another Place

It was going to be awkward having a job in a mall, Shayne thought. After all, it wasn’t like most malls were exactly thriving — he couldn’t remember the last time that he himself ever needed one.

His boyfriend had gotten him the job, though. His silly, geeky, glasses-wearing gorgeous live-in boyfriend. He was pretty dedicated to at least trying to make it work, without spending too much time staring at his partner working instead.

They sold nerdy things: video games, t-shirts, comics, signs, board games, books, even more expensive collectable memorabilia kept behind locked up glass display cabinets. 

Truth be told, the store was kind of cool, he had to admit to himself, even though he wasn’t into this kind of stuff as much as Damien was — and especially not as much as the owner, an only slightly older and sometimes angry bespectacled king of the nerds type who went by a shortened version of his own last name. Even if Joven seemed like the opposite of a workaholic, he was always in the store, sometimes flanked by other friends who would hang out and play board games in the back room.

He just needed time to adjust, rather than his old job of being a barista. 

Most of the time he found himself just sitting on a stool behind the counter, right next to the register. Damien or Joven would be wandering around the floor, both a lot more openly extroverted than he was. Honestly, Shayne knew that he probably looked out of place here, even with the lanyard he wore having various pins or such of shows and games he did actually like. 

With some of the customers, he could just feel their glare at him while he rang them up.

He knew what it was like to seem out of place, and yet when he saw someone out of place, all he could think of was _why would they be here?_

Because on this Wednesday afternoon, a young man had entered the store in what seemed to be a _very expensive slim fit Italian cut suit._ He was very thin, vaguely tan with dark coiled hair cut short on the sides with more on top. He wore dark rimmed glasses and had walked in, just to more or less seem stuck staring around the place while holding a small plastic box in his hand.

When Shayne looked around to find Damien, he noticed that he wasn’t out on the floor. He looked down at his watch, noting it was around lunchtime, and realized that the other must have disappeared into the back or to the food court or something.

So, it was up to him to come out from behind the counter and ask why this out of place creature was here. When he walked up, he got even a better look at the young man, noting that he was _at least_ an adult, though he didn’t look old enough to drink. 

And in a weird way, maybe the suit worked for him — there was a small tinge of attraction, especially when he saw the small freckles and birth marks littering his face and neck. 

That suit had to be at least a month’s salary for Shayne. 

“Can I help you?”

The new comer lowered his head, nervously smiling. 

“Hi! You uh, work here, right?”

“I do, yeah. What can I do for you?”

He realized he was just repeating the same thing, but there wasn’t exactly an immediate kindred feeling just because they both seemed out of place. Shayne clasped his own hands together in front of his abdomen, watching the taller man just seem to become more anxious as he spoke.

He had gestured to the box in his hand, and Shayne noticed that it was tupperware — seemingly filled tightly with some noodles of some sort.

“This is really awkward, sorry, but do you have a microwave?”

Shayne did a literal double-take, the shock on his face evident. His lips twisted into a smile, though he still felt awfully confused.

“I work at the store fifteen feet away. The menswear store.”

“Oh! Oh, uh, Grossman and Sons or something, yeah? Always thought that name was strange. From the looks of it, your clothes aren’t gross.”

“Thank you…? It’s my name.”

“Ah, so where are your sons?”

This line made the other man laugh, and it finally felt like some of the tension was eased. So, he did know how to laugh, apparently, so maybe he could use humor to bridge a familiarity.

“Well, since our microwave broke, I was hoping I could heat this up somewhere so I could provide my sons with food. Well, uh, not that I actually have family, just so we’re clear, but… Well, no, I have two brothers and my parents. This is for me.”

Shayne raised an eyebrow before he laughed, nodding along.

“Yeah, I got where you were going there. We have one in the back. What’s your name?”

“Noah.”

He was awfully nervous, but it was in part from finding the geek store employee so handsome. He’d never seen such a muscular guy in a place like this. For someone who was skin and bones himself, he found the large biceps and slightly tight shirt terribly attractive. The blue eyes and sandy blond hair, with so perfectly chiseled features…

“Nice to meet you. I’m Shayne.”

“Shayne.” He repeated, liking how it sounded to say. He pulled his gaze away, trying to find where the back room was. “Nice to meet you too.”

“Ah, yeah, the back room — come on. I got you.”

He reached out and grabbed Noah’s elbow, walking him toward the back. The moment that he had directed him to the back, Damien came bounding out.

“Hey! Hi. Are you lost?”

“He works right nearby. He was hoping to use our microwave.”

Noah smiled sheepishly, raising his container to show what he needed. How many attractive guys did this store staff, exactly? He was trying not to show just how close he was to turning into a puddle over them. This new staff had messy dark hair, an incredibly heart-melting goofy smile, warm brown eyes and a Legend of Zelda shirt that hugged his (albeit leaner) muscles well too… and, well, he was about the same height as him, as compared to Shayne being shorter than the both of them by a few inches.

“Yeah. You can go ahead and use it. Anytime you want to, too.”

Damien added a wink on to the end of what he said, making Noah duck his head. 

“I'll take him from here.” Shayne clamped his hand on Damien’s shoulder, noting the cheesy smile his boyfriend gave him as they passed by him. 

The back break room had some storage boxes here and there, two card tables shoved together with folding chairs, and on the countertop there was various games strewn around not far from the coveted microwave. There was a moderate size refrigerator as well, but Shayne knew that it was filled mostly with energy drinks and beer. It was just well enough lit to function.

He gestured Noah to where he needed to be, and stayed by the door and made small talk as he heated up his pasta.

“He’s a big flirt sometimes. Just don’t pay him any mind."

“That's okay.” He stared at the microwave as his food heated up. “…You really think he was flirting?”

“If you want to find out, I guess you’d have to come back like he said.”

Noah looked over to him, figuring he could speak up.

“Does he flirt with you? I mean — are you into guys? It just… if he is, and you are, you’re both so attractive that uh… well. Sorry, sorry, I shouldn’t be all in your business.”

Shayne had a pensive look on his face over the line of questioning. He and Damien enjoyed an open relationship, and he always had to try and gauge possible reactions from others, especially with the habit of Damien being openly flirtatious at times.

He just went for it.

“We already have been dating for years, we’re just open about it.”

Noah’s mouth formed a small ‘o’, not really saying anything in response to that. When the microwave beeped, he jumped back to attention.

“That’s… that’s nice. I should go ahead and take this back to eat.”

“Hm, yeah.” What a shame, he thought. It was too premature to feel crestfallen about someone just tucking tail and running. “You can find your way out, right? It’s only about five feet away.”

“Yeah.” 

He took his food and shut the microwave door, heading past Shayne on his way out. 

It didn’t take but a minute for him to head back towards the break room, just as he had stepped away, to peak his head back in to say something to Shayne.

“So, if I came back tomorrow… will you be here?”

Shayne turned around, having opened and peaked his head in the fridge to see if Joven had left one of those yogurts his partner always sent him with yet he never ate.

“Uh, yeah. If you needed to heat something up, come on by.”

“He said anytime, right?”

“He did.”

Noah meekly raised his hand to wave goodbye, before he quickly started to duck off again and head back to his own place of employment. He strongly wondered what could come out of such a chance encounter like that, and he was eager and anxious to see what was going to happen next.

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

The local large cookie slash pretzel combo shop that every single mall had was mainly headed up by a rather tall guy with dyed silver-white hair. (He and his assistant were a hilarious sight together, seeing as the small ebony woman was seemingly at least a foot shorter.)

He and Damien had once struck up a nice conversation about Final Fantasy when he had run into him outside of the mall, wearing pants and jackets with too many zippers, and he’d been surprised there was even a pop culture oriented store on the other side of the mall.

From the friendship they struck up, he found it rather nice to be able to head down toward the food court and veer off just slightly to where the store Wes’ managed was at. Often, Wes would give him a discount on a large pretzel — those as-large-as-a-hand cookies were something Damien couldn’t get on board with — and they’d be able to chat for a few moments.

He was a nice guy. Damien made it a point to get one of the salted pretzels every other week. He had ran so long speaking with Wes however, that he ended up eating the pretzel on the way back to his own store.

Damien was still feeling rather sociable when he got in, noting someone browsing some comics on the other side of the store while his boyfriend was behind the register, chatting idly to the kid in a suit that had been in last week.

The blond had told him what had happened last week after his flirtatious quip. The son of a man who owned a suit shop — it wasn’t that Noah seemed out of place, but perhaps he hadn’t had the opportunity to get grown into himself yet. Hell, he was even in a different suit, this one double-breasted dark navy wool.

He chewed thoughtfully for a moment at his pretzel before approaching them both.

“Hey.” He leaned against the counter, realizing that it didn’t seem like Noah had anything with him this time. “Have you had a chance to look around here? We have some pretty neat stuff. Do you like any of this stuff? Or are you a fan of… I don’t know, accounting?”

Talking to the younger man made him a bit nervous, truthfully, but he radiated his fake put-on confidence. He was a big fan of faking it 'til he made it. His little casual humorous quips and come-ons helped.

Noah had a great smile. He turned slightly so facing Damien would be easier.

“Accounting? Is that a Jewish joke?”

“What — what? No, I had no idea, I didn’t— I didn’t know. I wasn’t trying to… Sorry?“

He laughed it off, shaking his head. 

“Oh, no, I’m just messing with you, man. I’m only half Jewish anyway.”

Damien calmed down, taking another bite of his pretzel. 

“Dodged a bullet there, huh?”

Shayne jokingly threw out, with a smug smirk as the brunet glanced at him.

“Well… To answer your question, well, I used to play video games all the time. I still do, but you know, things get busy sometimes with life.”

“What’s your favorite series?”

“Oh, that’s easy. It's Halo.”

He knew instantly that he had something to connect with him about. It normally wasn’t such a surprise someone was a fan of such a huge game series that had been going on for ages, but he had a special in when it came to this.

“No, really? Have you ever played Halo Wars 2?” Noah had nodded, to which Damien grinned. “I did some voice-over work for that.”

“What?” He did a double take at the news, figuring his new friend would have no reason to lie. He didn’t even notice Shayne rolling his eyes, already having figure out that his boyfriend was going to twist it into some lame come on. “Is it anything I’d recognize?”

“Just a few Grunts… if you want to hear it sometime, it’s best suited for recreating it between the sheets.”

Noah raised both of his eyebrows in surprise, turning his attention over to Shayne instead. His face felt warm and heated, though he knew he wasn’t one to blush so with any luck he wasn’t betraying his reaction at the innuendo.

“Is he serious? You let him talk to people like this?”

Shayne rested his chin in his own palm, hunching over the counter as he spoke to them both.

“Yeah, Damien. You were a warthog driver or something in-game. Lying isn’t attractive when you’re hitting on someone.”

The brunet still smiled, rather pleased with himself. His eyes seemed to say ‘sorry' as he nibbled away at the last of the pretzel.

“Well, Shayne’s right. It was a warthog driver and some little miscellaneous ones. But, voice acting is pretty cool work.”

“Pretty persistent, aren’t you guys?”

“Only if it’s working. If you haven’t seen, we have a pretty cool army ripoff looking Halo jacket… Not trying to sell you anything, but it’s just neat to look at.”

“I'll look next time. I should be going.” His eyes flitted over to look at the blond, who seemed like he was utterly pleased. “So give me a call or text me to let me know.”

He leaned back in his seat, resting both hands on the counter. He replied in the affirmative, shaking his head yes while the young man adjusted the front of his suit and began to walk back out of the store. 

Damien leaned back in to the counter, both of his elbows resting on it, a pensive look on his face.

“Think it’s too much?”

“Huh? You being a horn dog, you mean?” Shayne chided, rolling his eyes again. Damien rose an eyebrow, nodding. “I doubt it, because he had actually come back here to give me his number and ask if we were _both_ free sometime.”

“Ah… And you told him what, exactly?”

“Well, I think he wanted to go on a date, and when we talked about it at home you seemed into it so…. What do you think I told him? Yes. I told him yes. The bigger question here is why didn’t you bring me a pretzel?”

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Noah had nearly backed out of the date before going.

He had tried to find some casual way to ask if it was just some weird sex thing, and in the end, he couldn’t think of one. In the end, he just straight up asked the both of them, in a iMessage group text with all 3 of them in there.

They both had been pretty quick to respond that it wasn’t. They weren’t jerks, Shayne had insisted, if there was an ulterior motive they would have just opened up about it from the start. Damien insisted if he ever felt uncomfortable, that he could relay it in whatever way he needed to and it whatever was going on would stop. 

When they met up for coffee, it had been so nice to speak with people that weren’t his brothers or casual connections that he had to pretend to still like from high school. 

Noah found out that they had both been friends for a long while, meeting one another at a comedy improv group. He had done theater for a while in school, but hearing this from them made sense why they both seemed so humorous and good-willed.

As a Californian native himself, it was just interesting to hear how they both met and got along well. Shayne had two older brothers too, and he hailed from Virginia — the product of a career military family. His boyfriend was a German-Georgian, crossing from the country to the state in the US. 

They both had jokingly made a comment about him not being in a suit. He assured them, before work, he hadn’t worn them much before at all. They actually made him self-conscious, he had admitted — he didn’t know if he really looked decent at all in them.

It wasn’t the first time of the day that Damien told him that he shouldn’t beat himself up. He was just used to being rather self-deprecating.

It was easy to relax around them. They had such an attitude of whatever would happen would happen, even though Noah still expected himself to mess up somehow by saying or doing something.

After the café, they went to grab some tacos to eat before realizing they could go the movies, since Shayne and Noah ended up bonding about movies a bit too well. Damien and Shayne both hadn’t expected for things to be this easy either, but it was quite a relief. 

Truthfully, though their polyamory had focused on sex a bit in the past, it was due to the fact that every time they’d attempt dating together that the person seemed to immediately latch on to one of them and not the other. Or, even worse, to dislike one — and they just really were not looking out for that sort of drama.

After spending even nearly five hours together, they went to chill at the boys’ apartment. It was really only then that Noah realized they were six and seven years his senior, but the news of his twenty years made Shayne gleefully admit he could _just tell_ that Noah wasn’t quite old enough to drink yet.

They didn’t seem to believe him about his birthday, though. 

All in all, they had talked for ages together. It was incredible — and when he finally was leaving their place, they both saw him to the door. He lingered a bit nervously, wringing his hands together as they tried to make plans for next time, and then Damien kissed his cheek goodnight.

Shayne followed suit, right on the other cheek, and something about it had just felt _right_. With a fake complaint about not being able to kiss them both at once, he gave his own goodnight kisses.

He’d never been on a date before in his life — not counting prom, which had been the only school dance he went to, even — not with a single person, much less two, or _two at once_. Now that he had, it had been unbelievably pleasant.

And now, that had been two months ago.

He’d only really tried to explain it to one person. He’d been becoming closer friends with a guy named Keith, who happened to work on the other side of the mall near the movie theater in a fast fashion urban clothing store. He was a pretty cool guy, and while he just let the topic slide out of not understanding it, Noah had a feeling that would be most people’s reactions.

His blonde coworker had given the other reaction when she overheard something about ‘the guys at the geek store’, which was to try and ask which one he meant because ‘so many of them are too cute’. 

Noah didn’t know how out of place it would seem though when Shayne and Damien both showed up in his own store instead one day, close to closing — they must have gotten off a bit early.

He had spotted them coming in first, due to his brother and another coworker, Tim, being back towards one of the counters chatting. 

Leaving his spot near silken ties he walked over to them both, waving and ducking his head back to see if they had noticed. It was hard pressed to ever be inappropriately overdressed, but he didn’t want either of his sweet, nice boyfriends to get any crap for their blue jeans and graphic t-shirts.

“So, it just turns out the boss wanted to go ahead and close up the front so he and some nerd friends could play a game.” Damien spoke, his nose crinkling — it had taken Noah a while to figure out, but he usually meant nerd in a rather endearing way. “You’re getting off soon, right? 

“Yeah, in a bit.”

Shayne seemed to be staring at everything around him, seemingly amused at his surroundings. In reality, he was trying to think of the last time he had worn formalwear, and if any that he had would even fit his current frame.

“Want to come over and have dinner? We were going to throw in Game of Thrones and just make whatever we could find around.”

“Sounds like a fun evening.” 

He wasn’t fully paying attention either, noting how Shayne seemed to wander away from the both of them. It was obvious too when he looked back, that he had piqued his brother and coworker's interests in what was going on. 

“Kinda more low-key than ‘fun’. It’s only a Monday, after all.” 

“Yeah, have to keep the fun until later…”

“Okay, you’re not even… Hey.” Damien reached out and grabbed on to his shoulder, trying to careen his attention back to him instead. He smiled, trying to be cautiously aware, even lowering his voice a bit. “Are you worried about something?”

Noah looked back to him, just as he realized he was too late to stop anything since his brother and Shayne were now seemingly talking. He forced a concern smile on his lips, shrugging in the slightest.

“Well, yeah — no, no, not _worried_. I mean, I’ve mentioned you guys, no specifics or anything, but it’s… He’s wearing that same bear shirt he just wears all the time. Why does he only have like five shirts?”

Noah hissed his words softly under his breath nearly, mumbling just the slightest bit.

“Ah, that’s nothing even, you know that cranberry color shirt he has? Used to be mine. Just has a _real aversion_ to spending money sometimes. What is it though, do you think he’s going to get kicked out? We’re still _in a mall_ , there’s no way this is going to go down like Pretty Woman or something. He’s not even cute enough to be Julia Roberts.”

The wording made Noah settle down, realizing he very likely was just blowing the whole thing up in his mind. He looked at Damien’s hand on his shoulder and took just a half step closer to him, appreciating any bit of time that the boys seemed to show any physical affection.

“I know. It’s a good idea for the holidays or something then, I guess. A new shirt.”

He still was mumbling, but Damien snuck his entire arm instead around Noah’s shoulders. He helped turn him around so they could both look around, realizing now how it was probably a bit weird that neither of them had never been over to see Noah here.

“A regular shirt, maybe. These look awful fancy. Like, is this one really fifty dollars?” He nodded over to a nearby price tag he could see, trying instead to encourage distraction.

They only needed a few minutes alone before they were joined again by Shayne and his brother. Shayne seemed incredibly nonplussed, his thumbs hooked in his jean pockets, while Noah’s brother went ahead and told him he could head off with his nice ‘friends’. He even included a joking threat about what would happen if Noah ended up spoiling the show for him, seeming like the two had found common ground themselves.

He ended up hurrying to the back so he could throw on some less conspicuous clothing himself to dodge out of there. There was no use risking letting the _three cats_ they had at their apartment getting hair on his clothes.

When all was said and done, it just was nice to realize stepping out of his comfort zones had brought such happiness to his life. It seemed cheesy or sappy, but he felt pretty proud of himself.

If they were all out of their comfort zones in one way or another, it was at least nice to have the company.

**Author's Note:**

> hello straight up there was a tumblr post about the premise of 'guys in suits and guys in nerdy store start hanging out casually and it's out of place and amazing' and then I did this. 
> 
> this wasn't exactly the other piece of writing I wanted to get out before the new year, but it's here, this just happened. well. maybe there's still time.  
> this could eventually turn into a collection or whatever because based off the lil cameos here this would entirely be a nice idea for a larger AU but I got no other ideas for now. hmu if you do >:
> 
> other than that: peace out, yo


End file.
